the white house held a firm line on saying we're not going to negotiate at all on this debt ceiling, and it worked. do you think this is a lesson that may carry for four years, when they see themselves posturing this way rather than what they have done on other issues? do you think this might be contagious within the white house? >> remember bill clinton and what the definition of is, is. with barack obama it's sort of what the definition of negotiation is. they will deal with the debt ceiling, and that's when you will have very active negotiations over the budget. what the house has effectively done is put this on a similar path, a similar timetable as these other negotiations and the president may be able to say look, the debt ceiling is going to have to be raised regardless but house members can say well that's fine, but this is what we're demanding in terms of cuts. so maybe they are not linked except for the calendar, but at least in the minds of the republicans they certainly are linked. >> michael: yeah, i couldn't agree with that more. and that's a really great take on it. on